Colbert welcomes Letterman as they crash CBS logo with 'The Late Show' props

Stephen Colbert has entered the final week of saying goodbye to The Late Show with May 21 set as the deadline.

Colbert invited The Late Show’s predecessor, the great David Letterman, on Thursday night, May 14, 2026.

To praise the end of an era, the two late-night comedians entered the Ed Sullivan Theater.

The audience and viewers were left stunned when both threw a few pieces of set props onto the network’s eyemark logo.

The Late Show host Colbert has been following an approach of inviting A-listers and his friends in the industry.

These included Kimmel, Oliver, Meyers, and Fallon, as well as Tom Hanks, Julia Louis Dreyfus, and former president Barack Obama.

Letterman was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation with a buzzing Seven Nation Army playing as background music.

Letterman came on the stage and empathized with Colbert.

He said, “Well, you know what happened backstage? I’m standing backstage, a guy comes over, he says he’s from CBS and he fires me. What is going on over there?!” Letterman poked in his signature satire.

“I have every right to be pissed off, so I’ll be pissed off here a little bit,” he continued.

“This theater, you folks wouldn’t be in this theater if it weren’t for me, and Stephen wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.

“And we rebuilt this theater, and then Stephen came in, and look at this? It’s like the Bellagio. But, listen… as we all understand, you can take a man’s show, you can’t take a man’s voice.”

Letterman then asked Colbert if Skydance had ownership of the furniture onstage, and Colbert told him the network did.

Letterman paid off a few stagehands to get the couches removed before the two sat down with the audience and recalled their time at Ed Sullivan Theatre.

The two powerhouses of comedy then went to the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater to engage in reckless destruction of CBS property.

Stephen Colbert's 11-year stint at CBS as host of The Late Show comes to an end on May 21, 2026.